Discount home scheme to be extended

Discount home scheme to be extended

Good news for first-time buyers. The discounted homes scheme is being extended to more rural areas.

The ‘starter home scheme’ which sees homes being specially build for first time buyers at a 20% discounted price will now also be built on unused land in villages as well as in urban areas.

ITV news says: ‘Government figures show 60,000 people a year move from urban to rural areas and the Chancellor said it was crucial to support the increasing economic diversity in the countryside. Writing in the Telegraph alongside Environment Secretary Liz Truss, Mr Osborne insisted that green belt land would be protected but he will open up greenfield areas to the scheme, which was previously designed for brownfield land.’

The Government have confirmed that the initiative will be open to first-time buyers who are under 40 and the new homes are to be built in England over the next five years.

At the moment the average house price for a first-time buyer is £218,000. That’s eight times the average income of 22-39-year-old employees! As a result of this, the average first-time buyer is 30 years old and 90% of the time they can’t buy without financial help from their family.